


Gaara the Cat

by istoleyoursandwichbecauseiampotato



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Cats, F/M, GaaHina, GaaHina fluff, How to be socially awkward, Onesided Sasuke/Hinata
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-16
Updated: 2015-05-26
Packaged: 2018-03-30 20:11:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3950125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/istoleyoursandwichbecauseiampotato/pseuds/istoleyoursandwichbecauseiampotato
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It has come to Hinata's attention that her new friend Gaara acts like a cat. An oversized ginger cat with panda eyes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.
> 
> This is a College in real life AU, so none of the ninja stuff. Sadly. This was inspired by my cat and a youtube video from buzzfeed called "Things Cats Do That'd Be Creepy If You Did Them." For those who like binging youtube videos and for those who adore cats, I strongly recommend watching this. It's hilarious.
> 
> I watched it, looked at my cat, thought of Gaara, then this fic was born. I hope you enjoy!

.

Gaara the Cat. Or, how Gaara acts like a cat:

.

**Approaches when offered food**

Hinata tried to fish for her keys as she balanced her shoulder bag and a large paper bag full of chips, yoghurt and other unhealthy stuff, while holding on to a container of two large cups of latte goodness.

It proved to be a difficult task.

Hinata contemplated giving up. Falling asleep on the floor in the middle of the hallway was starting to sound like a good idea.

This week was hell; not just for Hinata, but for every freshman in campus. It seemed the professors finally stopped taking pity on the freshmen, and deemed them officially adjusted to their new life as college students. This acknowledgement of 'readiness' led to a release of a barrage of assignments and papers that were considerably higher than the level the students had been used to in high school, as if to say,  _this is your life now. Get used to it._

Which explained all the food. And the lattes. Both of those were hers. Hinata needed all the energy she could get.

Just as Hinata failed her second attempt of unlocking her door, the door across her creaked open. She automatically turned her head towards the sudden sound, which was a bad thing, because she accidentally locked eyes with a person who looked decidedly suspicious.

There was an awkward pause as both parties waited for the other to speak up, but neither were really that motivated to do so.

"Ah," said the scary redheaded panda— er, her neighbor who only recently decided to make his existence known. "Is that… food?"

Hinata hesitated.

"And coffee?"

Hinata, for the very first time, took in the wild glint in his eyes. She'd recognize that look anywhere; in fact, she was sure she had it right now. "Um," she said, after deep consideration. "You can have some, if you want. Um. Actually, if you want, only if you want! We can study together..."

He stared at her.

"You can have coffee too, if you want."

After a brief moment of deliberation, he slowly closed the door of his apartment, strode over to her, and took the paper bag and the two lattes. Hinata, for a wild moment, thought he was going to run away with her food (lifeline), when he looked at her pointedly.

She stared back, until she realized he was waiting for her to open her door.

Hinata didn't mind the company as much as she thought she would. After all, misery loves company.

The next day, she cooked ramen, and the smell wafting from her room lured her elusive neighbor out of his apartment and into hers.

**Indecision**

Gaara was sick.

Hinata wasn't even sure Gaara could get sick; he always held himself with a cool, aloof, but capable aura that it seemed impossible he could get something as silly as a bad stomach ache. But then again, from the way he ate, Hinata wasn't really all that surprised. Gaara ate sweets as much as a normal person drank water.

The only way she even knew he was in pain was the chain of texts he sent her while she was in class, which mostly consisted of  _Hinata, Hinata, Hinataa, My stomach hurts, I'm hungry, I want food, Ditch class and go here right now, Stop ignoring me,_ and  _It hurts._

Gaara was also surprisingly needy.

Unfortunately, she checked her phone for messages after class, since Kurenai-sensei flung chalk to the foreheads of students who used their phones during class. She was deadly accurate. The last message made Hinata's heart ache, so she cut all her other classes and went to buy chicken soup.

"Gaara-kun? I bought chicken soup," she said later, torn between wanting to hug his curled up form on the bed and respecting his well-protected personal space.

Gaara glared at her accusingly. "You're late."

Hinata felt sincerely guilty. "I'm sorry."

"Hn," Gaara replied. He uncurled his body and lay spread-eagled on the bed, then turned to stare at Hinata unblinkingly. "Rub my belly."

"Um," said Hinata.

Gaara seemed to notice that he had committed some kind of social blunder, so he tried to rectify it. "Please," he said.

"Okay," said Hinata, very reluctantly. Thankfully, he didn't pull his shirt up, so she wouldn't be touching his bare skin. She sat on the bed next to him, put her hand on his stomach, and started massaging it gently.

Gaara sighed. Hinata thought it was like the human version of a purr.

"Stop," he said suddenly, just as Hinata was starting to feel comfortable and not at all awkward. She did, and was about to stand up when Gaara caught her hand. "No, wait," he said. "Don't stop."

"Okay," said Hinata, not at all reluctant this time. She massaged him for a few seconds, then Gaara said "Stop."

"Okay…."

"No, nevermind. Rub my belly."

"Alright..."

"Stop."

"…"

"Wait, no. Continue."

"Maybe… Maybe I could make you a hot water bottle?"

**Meeting new people**

Hinata positively beamed when she spotted Gaara sitting on a table in the café, sipping coffee while reading a Stephen King novel. She waved at him. "Gaara!"

Beside her, Sakura wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. "Friend of yours?" She said, in a tone that implied she didn't really think Gaara was just Hinata's  _friend_.

"Oh, yes," said Hinata, completely missing the pinkette's thinly-veiled teasing. "Gaara," she said, as she approached his table, with Sakura in tow.

"Hey," Sakura greeted, with a friendly grin on her face.

Gaara slowly looked up from his book, quietly dropped it on the table, and stood up abruptly to stare at Sakura.

"This is my classmate, Haruno Sakura-" Hinata was saying, when Gaara about-faced and walked away.

Sakura stared.

"Um," said Hinata. "It takes a really long time for him to warm up to people…"

"I see…" Sakura said, looking very confused.

"Sorry," Hinata said, hoping it could alleviate some of the awkwardness.

Slowly, from the wall he had hidden behind of, Gaara showed his head, and only his head, to peer at them suspiciously.

.

_To be continued._

.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It has come to Hinata's attention that her new friend Gaara acts like a cat. An oversized ginger cat with panda eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.

.

Gaara the Cat. Or, how Gaara acts like a cat:

.

**Gifts**

"Hinata."

"Mm?" Hinata looked up from her book to see Gaara staring at her with his usual poker-face.

He was also holding what seemed to be a small cage.

"I bought you something," he said.

"Eh? What's the occasion? Did I miss anything..?" Hinata asked.

"No. But I read somewhere that friends give each other gifts. So I bought you this," Gaara said. He placed the cage on Hinata's table.

Hinata blushed. "O-oh. You didn't have to-"

"You're my friend," said Gaara, with the stubborn expression of someone who wanted to eat ice cream, but wasn't allowed to because he hadn't eaten all of the green peas on his plate.

"Then, um, thank you, Gaara! This really means a lot," She said, as she peered at her gift. There was a small furry ball lying in the middle of the cage, which she guessed was supposed to be some kind of hamster. It wasn't moving.

She poked it. It still didn't move.

"It's… ah, it's dead?" She asked, because she wasn't sure if it was supposed to be dead or not. With Gaara, it was hard to tell.

If Gaara had eyebrows, they would have furrowed. Instead, a frowny wrinkle appeared between his eyes. He followed Hinata's example and poked the ball of fur. When there was no reaction, he poked it again. And again. And again.

It didn't budge an inch.

"…it is," Gaara said, which was followed by what could only be described as a pained expression. Hinata saw this, and was stuck in that awkward moment of wanting to hug someone but couldn't, because she had no idea how to hug people.

"I have failed you," he said. "I am not a worthy friend."

"No! Gaara, I don't think that at all-" Hinata was about to tell him how it wasn't really his fault and it wasn't a big deal, really, hamsters died all the time, but before she could, Gaara sauntered off with a heavy frown on his face and the cage on his hand.

Hinata ran after him and called out to him, but he slammed the door on her face.

The next day, after tirelessly worrying and calling and texting but never receiving any replies, Gaara wordlessly handed her a new book, looking at everywhere but her. Hinata, for the first time ever, decided to completely disregard both her and Gaara's reservation for personal space and kissed him on the cheek, followed by a very tight hug.

As she watched Gaara slowly turn as red as his hair, Hinata thought it was totally worth it.

**Catnip**

Hinata was curled up comfortably on Gaara's couch, holding the new book he had recently given her. Gaara had very dark taste— surprisingly, Hinata liked it as much as Gaara did, as she was starting to discover.

Gothic horror was strangely addicting.

On the other side of the couch, Gaara was similarly lounging with a book. The only difference was he wasn't reading his book at all. Instead, he was surreptitiously watching Hinata read, with a kind of sadistic glee which can only be associated with dragging a friend into one's own fandom and watching them spiral down into the point of no return.

The peace was interrupted by something that sounded like a crash from the front door, followed by a loud "LITTLE BROTHEER."

"Kankurou," Gaara said, in a tone one would use to address a persistent fly that just wouldn't go away, or a dirty sock that smelled really bad but everybody was too lazy to pick it up and toss it in the laundry.

"No love at all. How cruel," Kankurou said, with an unconvincing hurt expression. He was about to launch a very long monologue that would most likely go on several tangents, which were but not limited to: random exaggerated childhood memories, the unfairness and hardships of being the middle child, and unrelated events of Gaara being mean to him, all of which he totally deserved by the way. (Gaara secretly thought he tended to do this because he played with his puppets too much.) Fortunately, he stopped himself when he caught sight of Hinata, who was suddenly looking very nervous. "Ohh hey, if it isn't Hinata-chan!" He grinned cheekily.

"Um," said Hinata, at the same time Gaara said, very threateningly, "Touch her and die."

"You people don't know how to appreciate my greatness," said Kankurou, as he plopped down on the chair beside Gaara. "But whatever. Since you are my favorite brother-" ("I'm your  _only_  brother," Gaara interjected, but he was ignored) "-I brought you brownies!"

Gaara's eyes followed the container of brownies as Kankurou put them on the table. Hinata visibly relaxed, knowing that no breaking and/or crying would occur, as what tended to happen whenever Kankurou came over. Gaara became very docile when in the vicinity of something sweet to nibble on. It was interesting to watch.

Gaara took a brownie without hesitation. Kankurou looked at Hinata, who was being sucked back into her novel. "Don't want any?" he asked.

Hinata smiled at him but shook her head. "No, thanks, I have a cinnamon roll to finish," she gestured to the half-finished cinnamon roll on the table beside the brownies, and promptly returned to reading her book.

"This tastes funny," said Gaara, which, in retrospect, should have made Hinata very suspicious. But Hinata was too absorbed in the gory details of her book, and thus was not able to sniff out the mischief in the air fast enough. "What is this?"

"Oh, it's, uh," Kankurou paused. "It's coconut."

"I see," said Gaara. He took a bite. Then he took another one. And another. When he finished everything, he took another brownie and ate it whole. "This is really good," he said.

Then he giggled.

Hinata paused, looked up from her book slowly, and wondered if she should be worried.

"Really,  _really_  good," said Gaara, while giggling.

Hinata turned to stare at Kankurou, who was grinning like a cat who got the canary. She tried to be stern, but her expression was more of a mix of not-surprised and resigned acceptance. "That wasn't really coconut, was it," she said.

Beside her, Gaara wolfed down all the brownies in a surprisingly graceful way, because apparently Gaara can't do anything without being graceful, then moved on to Hinata's half-eaten cinnamon roll.

"No," said Kankurou, with the tone of someone who just found out Christmas was coming early. "No it's not."

On the other side of the couch, Gaara found Hinata's abandoned knitting project somewhere from the side of the couch and started playing with it. His giggling intensified.

"Don't worry, that'll last just an hour, tops. I didn't put much in there," said Kankurou. Hinata tried imagining him as the character who died early in the book she was reading. It was a gruesome death, and repeating it in her head made her feel marginally better. "Yo, little brother! Give your big brother a hug!"

Gaara turned to stare at him, then at the ball of yarn on his hand, then back to his brother. Then he threw the ball of yarn to Kankurou's face, who sneezed on impact. "No," he said. "I don't like you."

Kakurou rubbed his nose, then pouted. "Even  _high_  I can't get a hug from you…"

Gaara ignored him in favor of burying his face on the crook of Hinata's neck. Hinata yelped, but that didn't stop Gaara from hugging her tight with a dopey smile on his face. "You smell really nice," he said, which made both brothers giggle, and Hinata to look dangerously close to combusting.

"Is he going to remember any of this?" Hinata asked, a bit squeakily. She gave up trying to subtly squirm away, since it was impossible with Gaara's tight grip, and resigned herself to feeling embarrassed and stroking his hair.

"Yes," said Kankurou, a grin on his face and a camera on his hand. "Every bit of it."

An hour later, a lot of breaking occurred. And crying. Mostly crying.

**Dogs**

"Why do you wear so much eyeliner," Kiba said one lazy afternoon. "It looks stupid."

" _You're_ stupid," said Gaara, before he can stop himself. He really did try his hardest, though. Really.

" _What_  did you say," Kiba replied, his teeth (fangs) bared.

"If you weren't stupid I wouldn't have to repeat myself," said Gaara, his face as impassive as usual.

"I have a friend whose pet dog and cat get along so well. Isn't that amazing?" Hinata said, in what would have been an effective attempt to diffuse the situation if she was a bit more threatening.

Kiba growled. Gaara hissed.

"I'm going to bake cookies," Hinata announced, suddenly. She was happy to note that she did not sound as desperate as she felt.

There was a collective pause.

"Chocolate chip?" Gaara and Kiba asked, in much the same tone.

"Un," said Hinata, sounding a lot more chipper than a few minutes ago. "I don't think the cookies would come out as good if there's fighting in the background, though. Or if they would come out at all," Hinata paused for effect. "It'd be a shame."

Kiba and Gaara stared at her, then at each other. They tried not to glare. They failed.

"Tch," said Gaara as he looked away dramatically from Kiba, a pout on his face. Hinata secretly thought he was adorable (and that he was actually maybe as dramatic as his brother, but Hinata would never say that out loud. She might die. Or something.)

Kiba continued to glare at Gaara, then he turned to glower at Hinata begrudgingly. "Fine. But next time I'm just gonna kidnap you so I can have all the cookies to myself."

**Attention**

"Hinata."

Hinata inclined her head a bit towards the general direction of his voice, but otherwise did not give any indication of hearing him.

Gaara scowled. She was spending too much time working on that paper with that  _Uchiha_. She needed to pay more attention to  _him_  and not that duck-head, dammit.

"Hinata," he repeated.

"Hn," she replied, without looking at him.

Gaara's eye twitched.  _Definitely_  spending too much time with that Uchiha. "You've been working non-stop all day," he said, but with a lot less hostility. Perhaps it would work better. "That paper is due next week. You can afford to take a break."

It did. Hinata grimaced, and finally looked away from her laptop. "I know, I'm sorry. It's just… Sasuke-san is such a hard-worker, and I don't want to drag him down or anything."

She called him by his  _first name._  Okay.

"You work as hard as he does, Hinata," Gaara said, because it was true.

She was about to answer, probably something self-derogatory but not holding any truth whatsoever, but stopped when the laptop let out the unmistakable  _pling_  of Facebook's message notification.

Before she could reach her laptop to type a reply, Gaara placed his hand on the keyboard.

"Gaara-"

"No."

"But-"

"No. Later." Gaara closed her laptop shut. "Also, you really are hard-working. You're very passionate with what you do."

Hinata looked at him, surprised. Then she blushed. "Th-thank you, Gaara," she said, a bit shakily. She proceeded to bury her head on his shoulder. Not out of affection, but more of wanting to hide her maroon face out of embarrassment, and Gaara just happened to be the nearest hiding place.

They ended up watching a movie, after Hinata very discreetly sent Sasuke an apologetic message that she'd be busy for a while.

Three hours later, Gaara relented and let her work again, under the condition that she would stroke his hair once in a while. Or maybe feed him cookies.

.

_To be continued._

_._

**Omake**

"Can I get a hug  _now_. I already said sorry," Kankurou said, a pout on his face.

"Tch," said Gaara. " _Tch_."

Gaara hugged him anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter, there will definitely be romance.
> 
> I intend for these to be really really short, but somehow it kind of just grows. I hope it doesn't get too boring. Kankurou wasn't supposed to be there, but hehe I had too much fun with his character. I can totally see him as a goofy, melodramatic, and irritating but lovable brother. So, review? I would appreciate the feedback and criticism.

**Author's Note:**

> So... this was originally meant to be really short, but it grew a life of its own and somehow became longer. So am dividing it into three chapters. 
> 
> I would very much enjoy feedback :3
> 
> (On a completely unrelated note, I just dip dyed my hair blue. My hair is blue. It makes me happy.)


End file.
